Xfce Forum

D.dave

Member

Registered: 2019-12-06

Posts: 91

[SOLVED] Desktop: icons are no longer highlighted

Manjaro Linux (stable branch, I didn't still received Xfce 4.20)

I don't know what happened, but: when I have icons on the desktop, and I attempt to select them with the cursor, ther is no longer highlight color.
But I supect that this has started since in

/etc/environment

I have set

GTK_THEME=Adwaita-dark

because applications like zenity and pavucontrol were white instead of black (I use the theme Greybird black).

So I suspect thath xfdesktop is following Adwaita (and so GTK4 instead of GTK3); can I resolve by editing

~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css 

or by made

~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css 

?

Thank you.

EDIT: I think that I have to replicate/override

/usr/share/themes/Adwaita-dark/gtk-3.0/gtk.css

but I don't know what to do.

Last edited by D.dave (2025-01-20 09:48:51)

---

OS: Manjaro x86_64
DE: Xfce 4.20

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,784

Re: [SOLVED] Desktop: icons are no longer highlighted

By "highlighted", do you mean when an icon is clicked/selected (active state) or when you use the mouse to select multiple items (rubberband)?

Have a look at the first code snippet here for ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css snippets that you can use to fine tune the theme. And since xfdesktop is built on gtk3, it would be gtk3 that you are trying to tweak (not gtk4).

---

Mark solved threads as [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find solutions.
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---

D.dave

Member

Registered: 2019-12-06

Posts: 91

Re: [SOLVED] Desktop: icons are no longer highlighted

By "highlighted", do you mean when an icon is clicked/selected (active state) or when you use the mouse to select multiple items (rubberband)?

I mean both actions.

However in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css  I added everything:

/* xfdesktop rubberband */
XfdesktopIconView.view .rubberband {
  border: 1px solid #1a74d3;
  border-radius: 0;
  background-color: rgba(26, 116, 211, 0.2); }

/* default state */
XfdesktopIconView.view {
  -XfdesktopIconView-ellipsize-icon-labels: 1;
  -XfdesktopIconView-tooltip-size: 32;
  -XfdesktopIconView-cell-spacing: 4;
  -XfdesktopIconView-cell-padding: 12;
  -XfdesktopIconView-cell-text-width-proportion: 3.8;
  background: transparent;
  color: #fcfcfc;
  border-radius: 3px; }

/* active (selected) state */
  XfdesktopIconView.view:active {
    background: rgba(23, 104, 189, 0.5);
    text-shadow: 0 1px 1px black; }

/* default label state */
  XfdesktopIconView.view .label {
    background: rgba(255, 0, 0, 1.0);
    text-shadow: 1px 1px 2px black; }

/* active (selected) label state */
  XfdesktopIconView.view .label:active {
    color: yellow;
    background: rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.5);
    text-shadow: 1px 3px 3px blue; }

And restarted the desktop by xfdesktop --reload; nothig has changed.

EDIT: xfdesktop --reload; has no worked: i quitted and restarted xfdesktop and now it works!

Added later 17 min 27 s:

~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css snippets

I am puzzled; i tried again and now from terminal, when I reload the desktop, I get: XfdesktopIconView' is not a valid property name

this is the code:

/* active (selected) label state */
  XfdesktopIconView.view .label:active {
    color: yellow;
    background: rgba(255, 0, 0, 0.5);
    text-shadow: 1px 3px 3px blue; }

Added later 30 min 32 s:

I am puzzled; i tried again and now from terminal, when I reload the desktop, I get: XfdesktopIconView' is not a valid property name

No problem, I remake it from scratch and and now everything is as I wanted! Many many thanks, @ToZ !!!

I summarize what I did, since I have a dark theme, mostly grey:

/* xfdesktop rubberband */
XfdesktopIconView.view .rubberband {
  border: 1px solid #4a4646;
  border-radius: 0px;
  background-color: rgba(130, 130, 130, 0.1); }

/* active (selected) state */
  XfdesktopIconView.view:active {
    background: transparent;
    text-shadow: 0 1px 1px transparent; }

/* default label state */
  XfdesktopIconView.view .label {
    background: transparent; }

/* active (selected) label state */
  XfdesktopIconView.view .label:active {
    color: #626262;
    background: transparent; }

Last edited by D.dave (2025-01-20 10:06:02)

---

OS: Manjaro x86_64
DE: Xfce 4.20